Danforth an Orange man at heart

Roy Danforth strolled into a local Barnstable breakfast joint wearing a forest green corduroy button-down with a plaid shirt underneath. He wore khaki pants and a royal blue newsboy cap.

By JEN McCAFFREY

capecodtimes.com

By JEN McCAFFREY

Posted Jan. 2, 2013 at 2:00 AM

By JEN McCAFFREY

Posted Jan. 2, 2013 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

Roy Danforth strolled into a local Barnstable breakfast joint wearing a forest green corduroy button-down with a plaid shirt underneath. He wore khaki pants and a royal blue newsboy cap.

The 76-year-old blended into the late morning crowd, and that's how he liked it.

Nothing about him indicated this Osterville resident was the man who coached Syracuse University basketball to its first NCAA Final Four appearance in 1975 or who hired current Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim as a young assistant coach in 1972.

Boeheim, of course, took over as head coach in 1976 and has been there ever since. He passed the 900-win mark a few weeks ago, and with a win tonight in the final Big East opener for the Orange against Rutgers, he will surpass Bob Knight for second all-time in victories in Division I men's basketball, trailing Duke's Mike Krzyzewski (939).

But back to Danforth.

Danforth arrived at Syracuse in 1964 as an assistant and coached Boeheim, a guard for the Orange from 1962-66, along with Boeheim's roommate, future Hall of Famer Dave Bing. After Danforth was promoted to head coach in 1968 he brought Boeheim on as an assistant in 1972 without much fanfare.

"I needed an assistant," said Danforth, as he sat in the diner before a plate of steaming eggs and toast. "Back in those days — it's not like it is now. Now you've got five assistants. Back then it was one. He was the only assistant I had.

"He was a graduate, a good player and I said what the hell, hire an alum," he said, periodically sipping from his black coffee.

Danforth left in 1976 to take over Tulane men's basketball and Boeheim assumed control of the Orange.

The rest, well, truly is history.

Under Boeheim, the Orange have made six NIT appearances and 29 NCAA tournament berths, and won the 2003 National Championship.

For the past 10 years, Danforth has lived an unassuming life on the Cape. After a six-year stint coaching at Tulane, he became the school's athletic director. Then he moved on to become athletic director at Fairleigh Dickinson until 1994. Ten years later, he was inducted into his home state Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.

While Boeheim has garnered much of the praise for putting Syracuse basketball on the map, Danforth played a key role in kick-starting a program which came second to football at the university.

When Danforth took the head coaching reigns in 1968, Syracuse football was at its peak, winning the National Championship nine years prior in 1959. Ernie Davis won the Heisman Trophy two years later in 1961, and Floyd Little and Jim Brown headlined the teams of that era.

It was during those years in the mid-60s that Danforth implemented the 2-3 zone defense because, with a 6-foot-5 center, man-to-man was out of the question.

His teams stuck with that scheme and Boeheim no doubt took a liking to the zone, a defense his Orange teams have become famous for perfecting.

During his time at Syracuse, Danforth compiled a 148-71 record and guided the Orange to two NIT appearances and four NCAA tournament berths, including that 1975 Final Four.

"Back in those days there was no Big East. We had to win. Everything went through the ECAC," Danforth said, referring to the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference headquartered in Centerville.

"I had to win like five games in the ECAC playoffs before I went to the NCAA tournament."

While Danforth said he doesn't keep in touch with Boeheim, and has only been back to Syracuse three times since he coached there, he follows the team closely along with the Indiana Hoosiers.

Danforth appreciates Boeheim's allegiance to the rapidly dissolving Big East, a conference that was created three years after Danforth left.

As Syracuse enters its final season in the Big East before it moves to the Atlantic Coast Conference next season, Danforth doesn't think the 68-year-old Boeheim will follow.

"Syracuse goes to the ACC next year," Danforth said. "I predict Boeheim will retire. He doesn't want to go to the ACC. I feel sorry for the kid who comes in behind him."

That kid, 42-year-old Mike Hopkins, has been an assistant under Boeheim for 15 years. The ACC transition will no doubt be tough especially with regular games against Duke and North Carolina.

Danforth spoke like a coach in discussing the current Orange team. He was disgusted by Syracuse's loss to Temple prior to Christmas and bewildered that the team is shooting just 64.9 percent from the free-throw line, ranking in the bottom third in Div. 1 men's basketball.